A Match Into Water
by ShatteredDreamsProductions
Summary: When Alicia gets a chance to sit in on a recording session with her favorite band, Pierce the Veil, things go a little funny. She finds herself in an alternate universe where Pierce the Veil isn't Pierce the Veil but four men leading a revolution called "The Tidal Wave" against a dictator that's taken over their government. Rated M for language and maybe light smut.
1. May These Noises Startle You

May These Noises Startle You in Your Sleep Tonight

*THESE CHAPTERS ARE NOT MEANT TO BE INTERPRETATIONS OF THE SONGS. THEY ARE SIMPLY TO PROVIDE A SOUNDTRACK TO EACH CHAPTER AND TO THE STORY ITSELF*

_**"If you wanted to break things off why didn't you just say something! What the fuck was the point of anonymously sending in a complaint of sexual harassment to management!" Alicia heard a man's voice shouting downstairs. She turned from the poster of Cristina Aguilera she'd gotten for her seventeenth birthday that she was pinning up on her violet wall. She crept across her room, pushing various gift wrappings aside, and opened her door slightly. **_

_** "Robert, you wouldn't have listened if I'd asked to break things off." That was her mother. Robert? Wasn't that her Mom's boss?**_

_** "Damn right I wouldn't have! I'd make you see reason. This arrangement we have, it's too perfect to give up. But just because you're too gutless to tell me to my face that you want to stop our little secret get-aways, you're gonna cost me my job!"**_

_** "Robert, please. Keep your voice down, my daughter is up stairs."**_

_** "I don't give a fuck about her! I care about us. Isn't what we have more important?"**_

_** "It was a mistake. Please leave."**_

_** "I'll just keep coming back until you come to your senses."**_

_** "I'll get a restraining order."**_

_** "Then you'll have to admit, in court, in front of your entire family, that you and I were sleeping together. That your husband couldn't satisfy you the way I could."**_

_** "Mom?" Alicia called out from her room.**_

_** "Stay upstairs, mija!" her mom called back and addressed the man again, "Robert, get out of my house or I'll call the police." Alicia heard the door slam downstairs.**_

_** "This isn't over Katherine! I'll make you regret you ever made a fool of me! I'll raze your life to the ground!" Robert was shouting through the front door.**_

_** "Mom?" Alicia came out of her room and saw smoke. "Mom!" she yelled. **_

_** "Alicia! Get out of the house! Now!" her father called out but Alicia couldn't see him. The next thing she knew, she was on her front lawn, her house going up in smoke. She was alone on the grass. "Mama! Papa!" she cried and tried to run into the house, but someone held her back, a nameless firefighter who's face she couldn't remember. She turned and saw a man standing across the street, smoking a cigarette, smirking.**_

"_**Alicia?" she looked up. She was in an office. Her shrink's office. Dr. Martinez. "Do you want to talk about it?"**_

_** "My parent's abandoned me. They would have rather died than try to escape and be with me." Alicia hissed weakly.**_

_** "No, Alicia. They just didn't make it out of the house. It was a terrible tragedy."**_

_** "No. If I made it out, why couldn't they?" Alicia was trying not to cry, "They left me!" **_

_**Her surrounding changed again. She was in a hospital room now. Dr. Martinez, sat beside her, "Alicia, do you want to talk about what happened?" she asked.**_

_** She'd taken a mixture of various pills in an attempt to kill herself. What more was there to talk about? She knew it. Martinez knew it.**_

_** "Does this have something to do with it being the anniversary of you parent's death?" Alicia turned away from Martinez. What a stupid question. How could it be about anything other than being reunited with her family? "You've been doing so well, Alicia. What's happened?" She didn't answer. "Have you tried getting involved at school? You use to love choir and drama. Your aunt told me so. Have you tried getting involved in those things again?"**_

_** Alicia kept her face turned away. How could Martinez expect her to try those things again? She was an orphan. Getting involved in drama and choir wouldn't heal the pain. It would just disguise it for a while. Despite the progress Martinez had thought Alicia had made, she still felt like she was responsible for her parent's death. Why would her mom have cheated on her dad? Did Alicia do something wrong that made her mom wish for a better life that she though Robert could give her? Did she do something that disappointed her parents so terribly that would rather die than fight to survive the fire with her? **_

_** For a moment, she was back in front of her burning house. She turned to look at the man who watched it burn. Instead, she saw herself. Smoking a cigarette and smirking.**_

_** "Well, the doctors said your aunt can take you home in a few days. Maybe you'll be ready to talk by then." Martinez stood and left the room.**_

_** "What fucking home?" Alicia murmured. Her home had burned down a year ago.**_

_ "Alicia!" Alicia's eyes shot open, she was covered in a thin layer of cold sweat. She whipped her head around and saw her best friend and room-mate, Carol, sticking her head in through Alicia's door, "Up and at 'em, sunshine. You've got work to get to and then an epic night in the recording studio tonight!"_

_ Alicia sat up in bed, "Tonight? Is tonight the night?" she yelped._

_ "Yes m'lady." Carol smiled and winked, "You shall be serenaded tonight by the one and only Pierce the Veil." Carol waved her hand in the air as if she was imagining the band's name in lights._

_ "Oh my god!" Alicia shot out of bed and pushed past Carol to jump in the shower._

_ "Don't slip in there; I don't have time today to wash blood off the counter!" Carol joked from the other side of closed door._

_ Alicia and Carol had met in high school. After Alicia's suicide attempt, she'd been forced to join a teen therapy group. Martinez thought she'd benefit from therapy more if she heard other teens that were also dealing with traumatic experiences. Carol had been in that group. She'd been anorexic, recovered and now attended the meetings to provide a kind of sober companion to anyone that felt they needed someone to talk to between meetings. When Alicia didn't speak up in group, Carol approached her afterwards. They discovered they attended the same high school. Carol invited Alicia out after group to get something to eat, "We don't need to talk about whatever brings you to group. We'll just get to know each other, not each other's problems." She'd smiled. After a few such nights with Carol, Alicia opened up to her and told her about her parents dying in a fire. Little by little, Alicia told Carol everything; from what led up to the fire to her belief that she'd been the one to cause it. "There's a song I want you to listen to when you get home. This band really helped me out when I was going through anorexia and I think they can help you too." Carol pulled Alicia's hand to her and scribbled a few words across her the back of her hand: 'Southern Constellations/The Boy Who Could Fly'._

_Alicia stepped out of the shower and went to her room. She combed out her hair and threw on a black dress top and a pencil skirt. She applied makeup and looked under her bed for her black stilettos. When she was finished getting ready, she paused a moment. She pulled out her phone and navigated to the album "Selfish Machines" and played "The Boy Who Could Fly". She sat on her bed and let the song suck the pain left over from her nightmare out of her. She wrung her hands together and looked at the tattooed rings she had on each finger on her right hand. The title of the song was tattooed across her knuckles. One word on each finger, like five rings that would never tarnish or get lost. When the song ended, she unhooked her phone from her stereo and went into the kitchen._

_ "You had the nightmare again?" Carol asked from the sink where she was washing her bowl that had held her cereal until just recently._

_ "Yeah." Alicia nodded and grabbed a banana._

_ Carol nodded. "Well," She quickly moved on, knowing Alicia hated to linger on such thoughts, "we better get you to the salon before your boss makes you stay late tonight to make up for your tardiness." She took Alicia's hand and they went out to Carol's Honda Civic. Carol always drove Alicia to work; it was on the way to Carol's own job at the orthodontist office. "You're going to be hanging out with Vic Fuentes in less than twelve hours! Do you realize that!" Carol squealed._

_ "I know! I wish you were coming with me." Alicia was buzzing with excitement._

_ "I do too. But I'll get to meet them at the next meet and greet. It's totally cool." Carol waved it off, "I can't believe that it just happened to fall on your birthday!" _

_ "I know! How awesome is that! What better way to spend my twenty-first birthday than with the man I'm going to marry?" Alicia winked._

_ "Oh god. Does Vic know he's proposing tonight?" Carol joked._

_ "No, but I'll be sure to tell him." Alicia laughed. She'd won a design contest for a Pierce the Veil album cover. The band had just released a single that would be on their next album and held a contest for their fans to design an album cover based on the song and what the band meant to them. Alicia had drawn a girl holding a burning house in one hand and pouring a pitcher of water over the flames with the other. In the water, she'd drawn the name "Pierce the Veil". They'd closed the contest early, announcing that they'd found their album cover, and contacted Alicia within a week of her submitting it._

_ Carol pulled up to the salon where Alicia worked. Alicia moved to get out of the car but Carol locked the doors. Alicia turned to look at her. "Hey, these nightmares…have they been happening often again?" Carol asked her._

_ Alicia was hoping she wouldn't ask. "I think it's just because it's the anniversary tomorrow. The house burned down the day after my birthday. The nightmares always come back around that time." She took Carol's hand, "I'm fine, Care. I promise. I'm happy. I have an amazing friend in you. I'm meeting the band that helped to save my life tonight. I'm twenty-one today. I'm alive and I'm happy."_

_ "Alright, babe. You know where to find me if you feel like your spiraling again."_

_ "Just a phone call away." Alicia nodded and hugged Carol before getting out of the car. Alicia stood by the curb until Carol's car drove out of sight._

_ Alicia only had two clients today. Though she engaged in conversation with each of the ladies that sat in her chair to have their hair straightened, colored, curled or trimmed; her mind was approximately twenty-five miles away, in a little studio in LA where she was sure Pierce the Veil was already working on their album. She nodded and made various sounds of agreement and threw in the occasional, "You're kidding me!" "Is that right?" "No, I think you're completely right" just to make her clients believe she was paying attention to their stories. _

_ "Lisa, you're done for the day, sweet heart." A voice called out. Alicia looked away from her last client and saw that it was already 2:00 PM. _

_ "Alright Ms. Reynolds, you're done." Alicia smiled at the woman sitting in her chair, taking the cloth that caught any loose hair or splashes of hair dye from her client's neck._

_ "Thank you, Alicia. This is wonderful." The woman smiled and ran a hand through her hair._

_ "I'm glad you like it Ms. Reynolds. You can pay at the front." Alicia folded the cloth and began cleaning her station and all the brushes, combs and scissors she used today. _

_ "I hope you have some wonderful plans for your birthday tonight." Ms. Reynolds commented as she paid._

_ "I do, actually. I'm going into LA to meet a band that I really like. I won a contest to sit in on a recording session with them." Alicia smiled warmly._

_ "Well, how exciting! I think you should get home then and get ready." Ms. Reynolds winked and walked out._

_ Alicia threw various articles of clothing onto her bed. "Wrong, wrong, wrong. Oh my god, what was I thinking!" she gasped when she held up a psychedelic dress that she'd pulled from the back of her wardrobe._

_ "Yikes!" Carol laughed when she came into the room with a cup of coffee. _

_ "You're telling me." Alicia shuddered and tossed the dress aside. "Care, I have nothing to wear!"_

_ "Don't be ridiculous. You've got some of the best fashion sense I've ever seen." Carol sighed and went through the cloths that hadn't been disregarded yet. "What about this?" she pulled out a blue peasant top with flared sleeves and paired it with skinny black jeans and black leather boots._

_ "That's perfect!" Alicia yelped and snatched the outfit out of Carol's hands. Quickly unwrapping her hair from the towel she'd used to dry it, Alicia yanked a comb through her wild curls before running some mousse through it. After applying some light makeup, she pulled the shirt on and wiggled into the skinny jeans and zipped up the boots. She looked herself over in the mirror and smiled. She felt wonderful. On her right shoulder, her "imagine living like a king someday" tattoo was just visible since the peasant top was slightly off the shoulder. Her hair was tied up so her "darlin', you'll be okay" tattoo just behind her left ear was visible too. She only had a handful of tattoos and each one was a lyric from Pierce the Veil that brought her comfort when the nightmares and memories haunted her. The lyrics could chase those memories away in the blink of an eye._

_ "Alicia, it's already four o'clock. You have to be there at six, right?" Carol pulled Alicia out of her thoughts_

_ "Yeah. Let's go." Carol had volunteered to take Alicia out there and Pierce the Veil would provide transportation home._

_ "Alicia Pérez. I'm here to sit in on a recording session with Pierce the Veil. I won the album design competition." She said when she entered the recording studio._

_ "Identification." The woman at the desk said. Alicia pulled out her driver's license. "Third floor, room 309." The woman pointed toward the elevators._

_ "Thank you." Alicia put her license away and stepped into the elevator. She punched the button for the third floor and took a few calming breaths while the elevator slowly climbed up the building. _

_ DING. The doors opened._

_ 'Oh god…' she thought to herself as she stepped into a long hall way and began looking for the correct room. '309, 309, 309…' she skimmed the number on each door before finding the right one. She took the door handle in her hand, took one more breath, and opened the door._

_ "I'm not sure about that chord change in the bridge though, it sounds a bit off." Jaime was saying._

_ "Yeah, I hear it too. Okay, we can try a few different things." Vic looked up when the door swung open. Alicia had to consciously keep her jaw from dropping. They were there, just on the other side of the glass! "Are you Alicia?" Vic asked. She nodded. "Hey, come on in! We were just about to take a break." He took his guitar off and placed it on a stand beside him. Tony did the same and Jaime put his bass in a case while Mike stuck his drum sticks in his back pocket._

_ Tony opened the door that separated the recording room from the little studio. "Hi, I'm Tony." He held an arm open to give Alicia a hug. _

_ "Hi, such a pleasure to meet you." She smiled._

_ "Hey, I'm Vic."_

_ "Jaime."_

_ "Mike." Each boy gave her a hug._

_ "I'm so excited to meet you all. Thanks so much for having me!" she blushed._

_ "It's our pleasure to have you here!" Vic insisted and motioned for her to sit down. "We loved the design you came up with. It follows the same theme that "A Flair for the Dramatic", "Selfish Machines" and "Collide with the Sky" had and it just seemed to be the perfect continuation." Vic pulled up the picture on his phone. "How did you come up with it?" he asked._

_ "Well, it's how I felt when I came across your music and it just seemed right. I was a house on fire, on the verge of destruction and you soothed the flames." Alicia explained._

_ "If you don't mind my asking, what made you feel like you were on fire?" Vic asked._

_ "When I was seventeen, I found out my mom was having an affair. The man she was sleeping with came to the house because she'd complained that he was sexually harassing women in the work place. She threatened to get a restraining order if he didn't agree to end the affair. She slammed the door on him and he came back early the next morning and burned my house down." Alicia could see that man in her mind again. The one that had been across the street with the cigarette when her house burned. "My mom and dad didn't make it out. I never understood why. For a long time I felt like I'd done something wrong that made my mom seek out an affair to get a better life. Or that I'd disappointed my parents in a way that would cause them to want to die rather than stay with me. I felt abandoned for a long time. I attempted suicide once by drug overdose, but my aunt came home and found me passed out and took me to the hospital to get my stomach pumped. After that, I was sent to group therapy rather than individual sessions with a psychiatrist. And there, I met a really amazing friend who introduced me to your music and it really saved my life."_

_ "The house on the cover…it's your house?" Jaime asked._

_ "Yeah. And I drew the water with the band name in it because you helped to smother the flames that were still consuming me." _

_ Vic pulled her into a hug. "I'm so sorry that you had to go through that." He whispered._

_ "Thank you. For being here for all your fans, for making music, for saving me." Alicia whispered back._

_ "I'm so glad we could help you." Vic looked into her eyes and pressed a soft kiss to her forehead. "Now, how about some music?" he asked._

_ Alicia was bobbing her head along with the song that the boys were playing. She couldn't believe how awesome these songs were. They recorded each song in parts, first recording the drums then the bass and guitar and then going back to re-record the drums, but they were amazing. Alicia leaned back in the spinning chair that she'd been given to sit in behind the sound boards. Once in a while, the boys would ask her opinion on one change in chords or another and she'd timidly give her opinion. Sometimes they'd take it, sometimes they wouldn't. Jaime was playing a funny rift on Vic's guitar to get them to laugh when Alicia noticed a blinking green light under the sound board that hadn't been there earlier. She leaned back to get a better look at it and fell out of the chair. _

She fell a lot longer than she thought she would for just falling out of a two foot tall chair. She hit the floor, knocking the wind out of her. _What the hell…the fall wasn't enough to do that, _she thought as she gasped for air. She opened her eyes to see if the boys had noticed but when she peaked through her lashes…she wasn't in the recording studio any more. She was on a bolder, surrounded by trees, level with what appeared to be a small cliff of some kind. _What the hell!_ She thought and stood to get a better look at her surroundings. She walked to the edge of the bolder and saw another forest floor only about ten feet below her. "Where am I?" she murmured. "What the…how…" she couldn't explain it. She didn't hit her head when she fell so this couldn't be a hallucination. She couldn't be passed out! She pinched her arm. "OW! No, definitely awake." She rubbed the skin she'd pinched and took a step forward to look down from the bolder she'd…landed?...on.

"What the hell happened? I was leaning back in my chair to see what that flashing green light under the sound board was…I fell out of my chair and…that was a really long drop. It felt like I was spinning too, I thought that was just because I'd flipped over but…" she looked around again. She was in a completely different world. "Did I just fucking Alice-In-Wonderland my way into a different dimension!" _Don't be stupid, that would take a rabbit hole._ "Oh yeah, excuse me! I didn't follow a talking rabbit high on life down a freaking rabbit hole so there's no way I could have found a Wonderland. Never mind the fact that falling through a looking glass or a portal into another dimension is FUCKING IMPOSSIBLE!" Alicia argued with herself.

She heard a twig snap behind her. She spun around and listened. More twigs snapped. "Shit…what is that?" she breathed. She heard something running towards her. She tensed, ready to fight if she had to. The sound was coming from some bushes in the forest that the bolder she was on was level with. "Shit, shit, shit!" she murmured.

Four men burst through the bushes. They were looking behind them as if checking if something was following them. They turned around to keep running and stopped short when they saw Alicia. "WHAT THE HELL!" She yelped. Vic, Jaime, Tony and Mike stood before her.

"Who are you?" Jaime asked.

"What! You…I…we were just…I fell out of my chair…what the hell is this!" she couldn't decide what to say or ask first.

"Vic, they're closing in!" Tony had what looked like an iPad with a sonar screen open on it.

"Well, whoever you are, you're obviously not from around here. You better come with us. Trust me; you don't want to meet up with the people chasing us." Vic took Alicia's hand and pulled her along behind him. Six more men burst through the bushes; all dressed in what looked like some kind of military uniform. "Time to make an escape!" Vic pulled on Alicia's hand again and the five of them took off running. Alicia thought about resisting and demanding an answer as to what was going on; but she didn't. She followed Vic and the boys. What other choice did she have?

_. _


	2. Props and Mayhem

**Props and Mayhem**

***THESE CHAPTERS DO NOT REFLECT INTERPRETATIONS OF THE SONGS. THEY ARE SITUATIONS I IMAGINED WHILE LISTENING TO THE SONGS***

**Song lyrics used as dialogue are underlined. i do not own the lyrics or the songs!**

They ran for several minutes until Vic pulled on Alicia's hand and told them all to slide under some bushes near a tree that would provide cover for them. When they all positioned themselves, Vic slid his hand over Alicia's mouth to silence her breathing. They kept perfectly still and saw several pairs of boots come out of the brush where they'd just been. The boots stopped, seemed to shuffle about and then began sprinting off in the direction they believed the four men had run in. The five of them stayed there for five minutes more to make sure their pursuers had truly moved on. Vic slipped out first and sprinted in the same direction the boots had run. He came back and held a hand out to Alicia, "All clear." He said and helped her to stand. Mike, Jaime and Tony all crawled out from the bushes and dusted themselves off.

"You alright?" Jaime asked Alicia.

"Yeah, I'm fine. What was that all about?" she asked and peered in the direction the men had run.

"It's a long story. The better question is: who are you?" Mike looked Alicia over.

"Let's build a fire first, guys. Then we'll see who's who and what's what." Vic motioned and Jaime and Tony split off and went into the forest to gather fire wood.

"If you guys are being followed, are you sure it's a good idea to light a fire?" Alicia commented.

"It's fine, those people don't tend to think they make mistakes. If they see a fire, they'll assume its someone else, not us." Vic smiled warmly and motioned for Mike to start setting up camp.

Mike rolled out four blankets and placed a ring of rocks in the center of them for the fire. Jaime and Tony returned with armfuls of fire wood. Vic piled the wood in the ring of stone and started working on building the fire. Alicia looked them all over. They were Pierce the Veil. Or, at least, they looked just like them. Though, none of them had said their names so she couldn't be sure. She still wasn't completely sure what had happened. She went under the sound board in the studio and came out in a forest…. What the hell! Once the fire was started, Vic sat himself down on his blanket. Jaime, Tony and Mike did the same. "Alright, mystery woman, delight us with your story." Vic smiled at her.

"What?"

"Who are you? What are you doing in this forest?" Vic clarified.

"Well, I'm Alicia," she looked at all of them, she was going to sound crazy, "as for what I'm doing here…I'm not sure. I just appeared here."

"What do you mean you just appeared here?" Jaime asked.

"Well…I was in a recording studio and then I fell out of my chair and when I stood up, I was in this forest."

"A recording studio?" Jaime quirked a brow.

"Wait, wait, start from the beginning." Vic said.

"Well. Okay. So. Um…I was in a recording studio to watch my favorite band record an album, this band happens to look just like all of you, by the way, and I saw this little green light under the sound board. I leaned over to see what it was and fell out of my chair. When I stood up, I was on that boulder." Alicia knew she sounded insane but what other way could she say it?

"What do you mean they look just like us?" Mike asked.

"I mean, you just might have twins where I come from." Alicia said.

"Wait, whoa, focus please, Mike," Jaime tried to get them all back on track, "What do you mean you 'appeared' here? You crawled under a sound mixer and just like that," Jaime snapped his fingers, "you were here? Like…what…Alice falling down a rabbit hole?" Jaime asked a bit condescendingly.

"You think I don't know how crazy this sounds?" Alicia snapped.

"Okay, okay, let's all calm down. Is it possible that you're mistaken? Maybe you hit your head and that recording studio was all a dream?" Vic asked.

"Well, hold on. That part of the forest has a history, remember? The brujas in the old days used that area as a sacrificial and burial site. It's said that the veil between this world and the next was thinnest there. Maybe the brujas weren't sending people to Heaven or Hell at all, what if they were sending them to a different reality?" Tony chimed in.

"Boy, you don't speak often but when you do you sure say a lot." Alicia commented.

Tony quirked a smile, "It is said that the brujas even sent sick and wounded through to the next world. That the passage healed them. Did you have any injuries that healed when you arrived here?" he asked.

"Actually, I had a massive scar on my knee from when I was a kid and I fell off my bike." Alicia rolled her jeans up to check if the scar was still there. It was gone. "What the hell!" she gasped.

"The stories are probably true then. I've never heard of anyone coming from the other side, but I know to send someone through, a special…I can't believe I'm saying this…a special potion has to be made to send them back." Tony explained.

"How do you know so much about this?" Jaime asked.

"My abuela told me stories when I was a kid." Tony shrugged.

"That's right! I remember those stories. You always paid closer attention than I did." Jaime nodded.

"If we are going to send you back, it needs to be on Dios de los Muertos. It's said that that's the day that the veil is the absolute thinnest." Tony looked over at Alicia.

"Okay. When is it?" she asked.

Tony glanced at his watch and cringed, "Yesterday…"

"Yesterday!" Alicia yelped and grabbed Tony's wrist. His watch read 12:00 AM. "Can't we try anyways!"

"We need to find and make the potion first. Even then, if we try to send you through on any other day, there's no telling where you'll end up!"

"But come on, the brujas couldn't have only buried their dead on Dios de los Muertos!" Alicia thought about Carol back home, how worried she'd be.

"They didn't send all their dead through, only those that were the highest honor. And they were witches, they could use any solstice or spell to work the magic because they were so powerful. We're just four men who happen to know the stories of the witches. We're not practitioners. Without the potion and the help of Dios de los Muertos, we wouldn't know how to pierce the veil." Tony tried to explain.

Involuntarily, Alicia chuckled. "What?" Tony asked.

"Nothing. Um, but…aren't there any of them still alive to help us?" Alicia begged.

"No. They died years ago. They didn't keep a record of their spells. Only their potions and the spells that enact them. General spells were never written down, according to my abuela, because they could fall into the wrong hands and be used for evil. So if we can get the potion and spell that enacts it, we can work the spell. But a general spell to open the doorway, we can't do that."

Alicia slumped against the tree she was sitting against. "So…I'm stuck for a year?" she asked.

"It looks that way." Tony nodded.

Alicia nodded slowly. Was she always going to be at the mercy of others?

"Hey, darling, you'll be okay." Vic wrapped an arm around her, "We'll take care of you until then and then we'll send you home."

Alicia smiled slightly and leaned into him. Jaime watched them and fiddled with the fire a bit aggressively. Alicia furrowed her brow before looking up at Vic. "How? How can you protect me when you've got people hunting you?"

"Oh, that! It's simple really, we're leading a rebellion." Vic shrugged as if it was no big deal.

"Beg your pardon?" Alicia quirked a brow.

"Wait, before we get into that. Introductions. I'm Victor, you can call me Vic." Vic pointed to each of his friends, "The bruja expert is Tony, the beanpole is my brother Mike, and the dude with the hair is Jaime."

"It's nice to meet you all," _again_…she added in her mind. "But what's this about a rebellion?" she asked.

The boys all shifted a bit uncomfortably. "The rebellion against the dictator. He took power a few years ago. He's a cold, cold man. A traitor. He's sent all the population into poverty and lives in luxury himself." Vic hissed. "I started a rebellion called the Tidal Wave. We're planning to challenge him and his army to war on our terms."

Alicia looked at the four men. Four faces that had saved her countless times, always laughing and smiling and being charming. Now, they were wracked with grief and determination. "Why you?" she asked. Vic looked at her. "I mean, I'm sure there are military men and women that could lead a rebellion…why do you feel it's up to you?" she asked.

"Because I helped him take power." Vic said.

"Vic was a political man up until about seven years ago." Jaime explained. "We all were. Our friend was running for president and we all thought he was the best candidate. When it looked like he wasn't going to win, we rigged the poles to tip in his favor. We thought he'd bring absolute peace. When he took power, he started organizing wars. At first, we thought it was all for the good of the country. Then…the taxes continued to rise. And…he executed prisoners rather than sending them to trial." Jaime shuddered. Vic didn't say a word. "When his term was up, he refused to step down. He'd gained several supporters in powerful places who backed him 100%. That's when the four of us stepped down from our positions and started seeing how much damage he was causing among the people. Starvation, lack of education, lack of health care…it's awful. Vic decided to build a rebellion. And when the moment is right, we'll strike and take power back." Jaime looked to his friend across the fire.

"You should have seen this place in its glory day. It had brilliant cities and beautiful suburbs. The crime rate was low, jobs were plentiful. It was all but a Utopia." Vic smiled. He looked up at the sky.

"How are you going to take it back?" Alicia asked.

Vic looked down at her, "In glory." He smiled, "I'm gonna burst into flames and scream in the dark to rally the lost. I'm gonna light up this place and die in beautiful stars! I'm going to raze his rule and bring order back or die trying." Alicia was in awe of the man. He was determined in her world too, but this was a side to him she never imagined existing. This fierce warrior willing to do anything for those he loved. "But if these demons keep falling from the sky like you did, I'm not sure I'll be able to come out alive." He chuckled.

"Don't say that, man. You're one of the best fighters I've ever seen." Jaime said. Vic looked over at him. Jaime smiled softly and looked at Alicia, "'Cause sometimes I love the way he swings the blade at everything in sight! No questions asked. He's one of the finest warriors to ever live. He's like Hercules, Achilles and Perseus all rolled into one."

Alicia looked at Vic. She couldn't help but smile, "I'd like to see that."

Vic chuckled and looked at Mike, "Do you remember when we were kids and we'd run under the stars through cemetery backyards and celebrate the way the night hides scars?" Mike smiled and nodded, "Kids don't have that freedom anymore. It's too dangerous." Vic looked at Alicia again. "We've fought some of the dictator's warriors already. These men and women were my friends once. And I've had to kill them because they won't step down. I wish someone would separate me from my own two hands. I've killed so many times, but I can't save the world from the creatures that don't die. Ideas. The dictator has such big ideas that he's planted into his troops minds. Of ruling countries and living like kings. I can't kill what they believe in."

"You don't need to. You just need to give them something new to believe in." Alicia smiled.

"She's got a point, Vic." Mike nodded.

"Hope isn't lost until you allow it to be." Alicia placed a hand on Vic's. "Don't rain on your parade, it's gonna glow in the dark." She smiled as she quoted the lyrics to her favorite song to him.

Jaime watched them quietly and looked away. "She's a smart one, Vic." The two looked at him, "I think she would be a good addition to the Tidal Wave. At least until we can get her home again."

Vic looked back at Alicia, "He's right. What do you say? Why don't you come to the camp tomorrow and see what you think about joining us?"

"It would be an honor." Alicia smiled.

"Alright. We'll leave in the morning."


	3. Tangled in the Great Escape

**Tangled in the Great Escape**

***THESE CHAPTERS ARE NOT INTERPRETATIONS OF THE SONGS. THE SONGS ARE JUST MEANT TO PROVIDE A BACKGROUND SOUNDTRACK TO THE STORY. ALL RIGHTS GO TO PIERCE THE VEIL. I DO NOT OWN THE SONGS OR PIERCE THE VEIL***

**Song lyrics used as dialogue are underlined. I do not own the lyrics or the music.**

Vic led Alicia and his three friends through the forest the next day. Tony spent the journey describing their camp to her. "We're set up next to a river so we always have fresh water. The forest is actually heavily vegetated with edible trees and fruit and we have people in the group that go hunting once every few days." He smiled at her.

"Wow, sounds impressive. You sound like you've really thought of everything you would need to stay somewhere for a long time." Alicia commented.

"Vic was planning this for a long time before he even acted on anything." Tony nodded, "He's always been one for planning out in detail."

Alicia watched Vic at the head of the group. There was a reason he'd always been her favorite back home. He wasn't much different in this world so far. Though…she hadn't seen him really laugh with anyone the way she always did in interviews back home. "C'mon guys, not much farther now!" Vic called back to them. Jaime jogged to walk beside him while Mike and Tony stayed with Alicia.

After a few hours of walking, Vic pulled back a few tree branches and revealed a river that Alicia had been hearing for a while, "Here we are!" Mike, Tony and Jaime smiled and started unloading their gear.

"Sorry…but where are we?" Alicia asked.

Vic smiled at her and turned away. "I know what I want!" he called out.

The trees rustled and wooden ladders unrolled from the branches all around the river. Branches were pulled back to reveal tree houses and several people were looking through their windows. Men and women of all ages descended from the trees, "It's not what I need!" they answered and approached the four men. The trees on either side of the river had tree houses built in their branches. Alicia couldn't believe it. She'd thought surely that such a large rebellion would need to take up enough ground space to make a small village.

"Tree houses?" Alicia breathed.

"Yeah. If any of the Dictator's men came through here, they wouldn't think to look _up_ for a rebellion. They'll look in caves and under-ground and for makeshift villages. Who'd be crazy enough to build a city in the trees?" Jaime smiled.

"Wow…" she breathed and looked all around her. It was like something out of a fairy tale, but she wasn't about to say so.

"We've returned from observing the Dictator's army. It's growing every day. I believe he's decided to finally realize that we are more of a threat than he's ever given us credit for. Or he's finding us a nuisance and hopes a larger army will scare us." Vic addressed the men and women that had come down from the trees. They were all dressed as the guys were: black hoodies, black jeans, Vans and bandana's around their necks. They had to be the army Vic had built. They all laughed, "Since when is a tidal wave scared of man's attempt to stop it!" Vic shouted and his warriors shouted with him.

"While we were coming back, we found a new recruit. This is Alicia. She was wondering in the woods, also a victim of the Dictator's rule. She's lost her family to his army and she wishes to join us." Vic placed a hand on Alicia's shoulder. "Tomorrow, she begins her training. Tonight, we celebrate the arrival of a new sister." The army cheered and beckoned for their families to come down from the trees. More people came down. Children, teenagers, elderly men and women. The word spread of the celebration and several people scattered to gather fire wood for a giant fire for cooking and warmth. Mike, Tony and Jaime all found their families while Vic motioned for Alicia to follow him.

"My parents didn't die here." Alicia commented once she fell into step with him.

"I know, but they wouldn't believe the truth." Vic looked at her with a soft smile and knocked on the trunk of the tree they'd stopped in front of. "Tino!" he called. A man with black hair, goatee and mustache stuck his head out the window of the tree house.

"You're kidding me." Alicia breathed. Valentino Arteaga from 'Of Mice and Men' was smiling down at them.

"Vic!" he smiled and unrolled the wooden ladder for Vic and Alicia to climb up. "Hey man! We were beginning to place bets on whether or not you all got caught." Tino clapped Vic on the shoulder once he and Alicia reached the tree house.

"Your vote of confidence is overwhelming." Vic laughed sarcastically.

"C'mon man, you know I had money on you returning. In fact, I said you were taking so long because you'd hit some trouble and decided you didn't need all of us to fight because your badass skills took care of everything." Tino noticed Alicia, "I heard you mention a new recruit. This her?" he asked.

"I'm Alicia." She smiled and held a hand out to shake his. She still couldn't believe that she was meeting another band-member-turned-revolutionist.

"Valentino. But everyone just calls me Tino." He clasped her forearm in a warrior's handshake.

"She needs gear, man. Clothes mostly. We'll get her a weapon once she's trained." Vic motioned to the racks of clothing and weapons all along the walls.

"Will do." Tino looked Alicia over, taking measurements with only his gaze. "Let's see." He turned and walked over to some racks of hoodies and jeans. "Go ahead and check out the shoes. We've got boots and Vans. I'd recommend two of each." He called over his shoulder. Vic motioned for Alicia to try on some shoes. Once she'd found two pairs of both boots and Vans that she felt fit comfortably, Tino returned with a hoodie and a pair of jeans. "Try these." He said and motioned for her to try on the clothes behind a screen so he and Vic couldn't see anything. Alicia took the clothes and slipped behind the screen.

"Where did you find her?" Tino asked.

"At the witches old burial ground." Vic confessed.

"And how true is the story you gave everyone else?" Tino chuckled.

"How do you know it isn't all true?"

"Because that place is riddled with magic and mystery. That's where the portals to the other world are said to be. You expect me to believe she just stumbled upon that place?" Tino asked.

"Well, that's where we found her. I'll explain her true circumstances when there's more time. For now, don't tell anyone that there's more to her story." Vic said. Tino nodded.

"How do I look?" Alicia stepped out from behind the screen in a fitted black hoodie and her skinny jeans with her black boots on. Vic's mouth dropped slightly.

"Perfect fit." Tino nodded. "I'll just grab three more of each. Shirts and undergarments are at another tree house. You should make a stop there and get about seven shirts and maybe ten sets of undergarments." Tino called from the racks. "You should have seen our friend Austin when he first got here. He had a thing about fresh underwear to the point where he wouldn't wear a pair more than once. It took him forever to get use to the idea of using the same ten pairs until they were worn out." Tino laughed.

"Austin's here!" Alicia gasped.

"You know him?" Tino asked.

"Uh…well…no. I…uh…I knew an Austin back home and I just hopefully assumed it was him."

"Austin Carlile?" Tino handed her, her new clothes.

"Oh. No. Sorry, wrong person." _Oh my freaking gosh!_ Alicia thought.

"Well, I'm sure your Austin will turn up sooner or later." Tino smiled and walked away to unroll the ladder again.

"Well. How do I look?" Alicia smiled and looked at Vic.

"Fantastic." He breathed. "You look really, really good."

"Okay guys. Let's get you to the celebration." Tino called to them.

"Alright, thanks man. I'll send Alan in a few hours so you can come and celebrate with us." Vic hugged Tino.

"Alan Ashby!" the name came out before Alicia could stop it.

"Yeah, you know Alan?" Tino asked.

"Uh…it's…uh…" she looked at Vic.

"It's all part of her story that I'll explain later, Tino." Vic covered for her.

Tino examined Alicia again. "Um…Why does someone need to come to relieve you?" Alicia asked in an attempt to change the subject.

"We don't leave any tree house unoccupied. That way, the ladders aren't always unrolled and if a patrol walks by, we can scatter and make it look like this is just a meeting place rather than a permanent base." Vic explained.

"Oh. I see." Alicia nodded.

"Tell Alan to not get too drunk. I'd rather not have him falling out of the tree house." Tino chucked softly, still scrutinizing Alicia.

"Will do." Vic smiled and began to descend from the tree house. "How do you know Alan?" he asked once they were on the ground again.

"Well, you know how I told you there were people that looked just like you back where I come from?" she asked.

"Yeah."

"Yeah, there's a Tino look alike back there too. He's in a band where I come from. And Alan and Austin are in a band with him. So I just figured…"

"Just like the band that looks like Mike, Tony, Jaime and I?"

"Yeah."

Vic nodded before chuckling. "It seems like the bands you like in your world have all congregated here in this world. Next you'll be telling me my friends Andy, Ronnie and Jack all have bands back in your world too."

Alicia stopped, "Well…" she said before resuming her walking to catch up to Vic.

After visiting the undergarments and T-shirts tree house, Alicia was taken to Tony's to settle into her new home. "Thanks again for taking me in." Alicia smiled at her new room-mate.

"It's not a problem. You're doing me a favor actually. Mike and Vic room together and Jaime has the worst smelling feet. I even told Vic the only way I'd join the rebellion is if I never had to share a bunk with Jaime." Tony laughed.

"Fuck you, Turtle!" Jaime laughed from the small living room area of the house. The tree houses were impressively big. The trees were large and strong enough to hold tree houses that had up to two small rooms and a small living area.

Alicia smiled as she and Tony joined Jaime in the living room. "Who's staying behind to watch the house?" she asked.

"I got my little sister to do it. She's not one for celebrations. She's happy to spend her time up here with a book away from our parents. They're constantly trying to get her to go to these bonfires." Tony smiled. "She's a bit shy and prefers the time alone sometimes."

"Tone! Toss the ladder down!" a girl's voice called from the ground.

"Speak of the devil." Tony smiled and unrolled the ladder. A girl with a round face and brown hair poked her head through the door in the floor where the ladder unrolled. She smiled at Tony and held out a hand to be helped up.

"Hey Tone." She smiled.

"Hey sis." He helped her up. "This is Alicia. Alicia this is my little sister." Tony introduced them.

"Hi, nice to meet you." Alicia smiled.

"You too. It's cool you've decided to join us. I'm sorry about your family." She said, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear.

Alicia almost tiered up. In all her life, no one had really ever said that to her. They'd told her things would get better. That it wasn't her fault. That she'd eventually stop hurting. No one had ever really said they were truly sorry. "Yeah. Me too. Thanks." Alicia smiled sadly.

"Okay sis. Remember, only unroll the ladder if you hear me say—"

"Love before glory. I know, Tone." She laughed.

"Same for Alicia, got it?" Tony turned to Alicia to make sure she heard the pass word.

"Got it." Alicia nodded.

"Ok, have fun guys!" Tony's sister smiled as they left. "Bye Jaime." She added with a blush.

Jaime paused momentarily, "Later mija." He smiled and climbed down the ladder.

"Dude, my kid sister_ so_ likes you." Tony laughed.

"She knows I'm too old for her, right?" Jaime asked.

"Does age really matter when it's big brother's friend?" Tony smiled.

"I don't know…I don't have a sister…does it matter?"

"Nope." Alicia laughed. "I don't have brothers but I always had crushes on my older cousin's friends. It never mattered how old they were."

After several hours of celebration and food, Alicia and Tony had returned to their tree house, as had everyone else. Alicia wasn't use to sleeping on the floor, she'd never been camping and had never had a tree house. She'd never slept on anything but a bed, so sleeping in a forest in a tree house would take getting used to. Eventually, after about an hour of trying, she started dozing off by listening to the river. Hers and Tony's house was a few trees into the forest, so the river was a faint but calming sound. She heard footsteps below and sat up to see what it was. She glanced out her window and saw Vic walking past the tree. She watched as he went a few trees over and stopped. "Jaime!" He whispered. "Jaime! Wake up." Alicia watched as Jaime looked out his window. "We need to talk." Jaime nodded and dropped a rope down from his house and climbed down. He pulled on the rope and it fell to the ground. They started walking deeper into the woods. Alicia grabbed her boots and hoodie before lightly knocking on Tony's doorway, he stirred and looked over at her, "Tony, I'll be back, I need to get some water from the river. Is that okay?"

"Yeah, sure, just call for me when you get back so I can let the ladder down." He said as he rolled out of bed to unroll the ladder for her.

"Okay. I'll be back in a bit." She climbed down and started walking in the direction of the river until she felt sure Tony wasn't watching her. She turned and started heading the direction she'd seen Vic and Jaime go. She tiptoed as quietly as she could and found them in a small clearing where a little pond reflected moonlight.

"What made you second guess yourself?" Jaime was asking.

"You saw their army, Jaime. Can we really compete with that?" Vic asked.

"We are strong, Vic. Really strong. You always get like this at least once every few weeks. We _can_ do this." Jaime was saying.

"What if we just try smuggling people out of the country? We could send them to Mexico or across the Atlantic! Even to Cuba." Vic said.

_So it's still Earth. It's still America. It's just a parallel world._ Alicia thought to herself.

"You know the Dictator's got eyes and ears everywhere. It's a miracle we've been able to stay hidden this long. Especially with our numbers growing. If we tried to _move_…I'm not sure how far we'd get." Jaime said.

"Then what about you? Hm? I don't want you or Tony or Mike to die here. You guys are my friends first and my soldiers second. How can I ask you all to go into battle with me when it was my fault that the Dictator came to power?"

"Vic," Jaime placed his hands on Vic's shoulders. "It is not your fault. Q—…the Dictator was beyond reason by the time you realized what he was planning. And the by the time you were able to convince _us_…there was nothing you could have done. Maybe if we'd all listened a bit earlier…if I'd listened earlier…I'd have been able to unrig the votes so that he wouldn't gain power. And when I did believe you? I didn't even help. I was too scared. I let you down and I started to run. I never meant to be your pain. I never wanted to leave you hanging the way I did. What have I become? There was a time when I didn't need you to convince me of anything. I'd do it because you asked. This rebellion…staying beside you to fight it…this is me making up for not believing you when all this could have been avoided. Show me the way back. Show me the way back home. Back to when I didn't need any proof other than your word and your friendship." Jaime said.

"Hi-me. I'm losing confidence everyday. I'm scratching at the floor inside my mind and they all accept the lie. The lie that I know what I'm doing!" Vic was near tears. "It's my fault that he can do all he's been able to. We were so political as kids, always talking about ways to better the government and create better laws. Looking at dictators from history and taking all the things they did right and discarding the things they did wrong. We were always looking for the perfect government. What if it's my fault he thinks what he's doing is right?"

"It's not, though!" Jaime reassured him. "You are not responsible for what goes on in someone else's mind!" Alicia was captivated by their discussion. She felt she was learning more in this clearing than she ever would if she asked. "So bury what you are outside. Brother, please don't be afraid of…what you _think_ you've done. I know you're tortured within. That you think this is all your fault. Your eyes look hungry again, a hunger for justice and a need to protect those you love. But I'll never wander, my friend, I'll never leave your side until this battle is fought. And we _will_ win." Jaime smiled and held his hand out for Vic to clasp it.

Vic smiled lightly at his friend and reached out to clasp Jaime's hand.

"I don't think so…" they both pulled their hands back and ran them through their hair. The same hand shake Alicia had seen them exchange a hundred times in interviews. She smiled to herself and quietly slipped back to her tree house.


End file.
